CHANGELING: Book Two in the Weaver Series Page 22

  I asked Cass, “How long are we supposed to let her torture us?”

  With a grunt at another pull Cass returned, “Quit being a wimp, Silver.”

  As a distraction we let our gaze wander the walls of the quarters we shared with nine other girls—five Aniy, four Imini. The whole dang place reminded us of a harem. Sheer white banners of cloth hung from the high ceiling to divide each girl’s sleeping area. An open area about ten feet wide kept each row of pallets divided. Every assigned spot was tagged with different symbols in tight curling lines, much like the designated areas for bending at The Hub. There was a reason for it but it took us some time to figure it out. On either end of the cavern two separate facilities housed long vanities, multiple volcano igloo toilets, and several Aniy-sized red light alcoves. The Aniy still had a communal bath but they preferred to use it for recreation rather than actual bathing.

  Our assigned rectangle of the cavernous space was filled with our pallet, made from a felt-like material and densely stuffed, a chest of drawers built into the wall to save space, a basket for toiletries, and a small blue box to lock away personal items. The key to the box rested against our breastbone under our filmy yellow and blue robes. Things still went missing but if you were clever and quiet you could get them back.

  Ela tugged particularly hard on a lock of our hair and Cass smacked our knee with a crack. “I’m about done letting you torture us, Ela. One would think the smart thing would be to make us like getting our hair done not the reverse.” I wiggled the trunk of our body and leaned forward against the grip she had on our hair.

  Cold fingers slapped our shoulder as Ela gave an exasperated hiss, “Aetstandan!”

  Used to keeping contact with our skin to a very limited number of people, it was still alarming when anyone touched us unexpectedly. Elder Nyt had insisted, against Sil’s advisement, that we not keep ourselves apart. Her reasoning was that Annis had made us the way we were for a reason and in her home we would not be forced to hide it. The Hub, and anywhere else outside of the powerful woman’s complex of apartments was a completely different matter. It was our opinion, and Kal’s, that Nyt hoped we would somehow inadvertently cause a mutation by mixing with her family. She’d read all of Sil’s reports so she knew nearly everything. Somehow it hadn’t surfaced in Sil’s data that we could bypass DNA protocols like an Imini yet.

  Lil came down the aisle, did a double take at our anger clouded expression and exploded into wide mouthed laughter. Our Imini friend looked different but breathtaking. In the roughly six months we’d been the honored guests of Elder Nyt, she’d settled into Aniy customs surprisingly fast. Headdress gone, Lil’s sleek ruby red mane fell to just above her buttocks and she walked with loose boned steps to loom over us, mightily amused. She melted gracefully into a sitting position, flashing a long tan length of smooth thigh and took our hands in hers.

  Her voice was unsteady with barely suppressed mirth. “She is not trying to hurt you, Min Druta. Be still, she is halfway done. You will be stunning.”

  We sat straight, eliciting an irritated tooth click from behind. “Halfway! How do you stand this every day? I’d go back to wrapping my hair if I were you.”

  Disgruntled at Lil’s good humor in the face of our suffering Cass added, “Screw vanity, I’m giving Ela five more minutes and then we’re done, Sister.”

  Lil gave a sideways smile. “I am glad today is finally here. My body hungers for the open air outside Denu.”

  I thought of Vel’s secret sauce and our mouth began to water in anticipation. “Our stomach hungers for dinner at your place and a good long soak in our favorite pool.”

  Our friend’s black shining eyes took on a fragile shaded cast. Her lips went in on themselves, disappearing under the weight of her memory of our last bath together and the Baelc attack. Lil hadn’t bounced back as fast from the violent episode as we had. For us it was nothing more than another blip in our chaotic life; for her it was an outlook altering experience.

  Suddenly clammy, the hands enveloping ours released. Cass caught Lil’s fingers by the tips. “It will get better. The best thing we can ever do against those that seek to hurt us is to live fully, Lil. You don’t see us worrying do you?”

  We let her fingers slide away on the pretext of grabbing our discarded brush and grooming her wealth of thick bright hair. Her expression let us know she was done talking.

  The other Imini girls were huddled across the room helping each other carefully wrap their hair. Bel, Qyl—pronounced like Kyle—and Zay looked excited and relieved to visit Denu and their eyes kept making quick darts our direction in confusion. Gone were their yellow and blue layered lengths of filmy robes. These girls were once again clad in gray wog skin tunics and pants. I eyed Lil’s free flowing locks and Aniy attire. “Jaz is going to have a cow if you go home dressed like you are, Lil. Are you ready for war?”

  She squinted at us narrowly.

  “Hey, we’re on your side, I’m just sayin’, you know it’s true.”

  Ela wasn’t pulling as hard anymore and we could feel her tucking and pinning. She made a prim noise in the back of her throat and when Lil looked her way she said over our head, “Elder Nyt intended for this to be a true immersion in each culture’s ways. She will be elated that you bring home your willingness to experience Aniy traditions. I can only hope my sisters have taken to Imini life with such abandon. Your Modor should be proud, Lil. You do not embrace change with words but deeds, and that is the path of Annis.”

  Color stole into Lil’s cheeks at Ela’s rare, bold praise. She ducked her chin into her shoulder and brushed a sheet of her brilliant hair over the side of her face until she could collect her emotions. Our scalp was starting to itch and I was sorely tempted to dart a finger blindly upward to scratch at random. I fisted our robes in our lap to guard against the impulse.

  Cass bit our lower lip. “How close to done are you, Ela? We seriously can’t take much more of this.” A pin stabbed us and the weight of our hair felt like a book on the top of our head as her hands patted it.

  Finally satisfied, Ela said, “You may rise.”

  Lil squealed and clapped her hands. “Can I be next, Ela?”

  Cass pushed us to our feet without butting heads with Lil and sidestepped our friend’s eager floor scoot. One of Lil’s feet kicked us in the shin and I turned to scowl, “Ow!”

  From her kneeling position on our pallet Ela arched an elegantly thin eyebrow and said, “You should admire my labor in a mirror before you tear it apart.” She stared with an expectant expression.

  I backed us away. “Sure, we’ll do that.”

  Cass aimed us toward the far end on the right and I resigned myself to an inspection. My twin had become curious about our looks in comparison to other girls recently. Cass and James were heating up in their Web sessions and I tried to keep my thoughts out of theirs but it was difficult. Mez and I were stalled. We’d kissed, held hands, and even gotten enthusiastic in a study nook but I always called a halt when his hands got too free. Anytime my mind entertained the idea of more it froze over in terror. My whole existence was based on control over myself, even in the past over Cass, and the sensations Mez made me feel seemed uncontrollable.

  All thoughts of my stagnant love life faded as Cass brought us in front of the vanity. A stranger with a long swanlike neck and delicate shadowed collar bones stared forbiddingly back at us. Our skin was still pale and our freckles still dotted all the same places but we looked older—more a woman than an almost fifteen year old girl. Ela had piled our dark brown hair in a painstakingly layered design of thin braids, leaving wispy wavy tendrils in front of our ears and at the nape of our neck. The filmy robes combined with our new up-do made me think words like breakable and defenseless.

  Cass turned our head right then left, leaning in close to the mirror. “I like it, I guess.”

  I tried to hide it but a miniscule puff of pleasure leaked out at our transformation. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, Cass. I’m not putting up w
ith that crap all the time, though.”

  The girls we lived with hadn’t really ever gotten used to us speaking out loud to one another. We always made them jump—some more than others. In the Aniy camp we had an assortment of Elder Nyt’s granddaughters—Tet, Nik, Kit, Fyt, and Efl. Tet was the oldest and a spitting image of her grandmother. All the other girls had the same light brown hair and blue black skin of Ela. I didn’t believe it at first but Efl assured us they didn’t dye their hair—it was naturally light with even black roots. Eavesdropping on conversations we’d also learned Sil was indeed related to Ela; they were siblings.

  Most everyone got along, almost too well. The only exception was the Aniy tendency to play games with each other’s belongings. Kal had apparently spared us the tradition, mainly because we couldn’t teleport for a time. As a way to hone their skills young Aniy frequently snuck possessions from one another and it was your job to find out—who, what, and where—then sneak it back. The first time our brush went missing we’d been annoyed. When we woke to get ready for a day at The Hub and found our school robes gone we were more than annoyed.

  Fyt had the pallet to the right of us and Tet had drifted over to her cousin’s rectangle of space with purpose. Fyt always woke with an urgent need to use the igloo and she’d just disappeared in a puff of crisp ozone after popping upright like a prairie dog from a hole. Tet opened the wooden doors of our neighbor’s wardrobe, dug around in a stack of clothes and yanked out a wad of black. She shoved it between the sheer white panels in our direction. Confused, we reached out to take them but Tet held on and gave us an intense stare meant to convey the importance of her words.

  “Fyt is terrible at hiding what she takes but she is a master at getting it. I am, however, a master of all.” A light field crept around her body until her extended hands filled with our mounded robes were all that remained.

  Kit barked from inside the open doors of her wardrobe to our left, “Ha! She who has been caught cannot claim the rank of master, Tet. Ignore my cousin—she has a grand idea of herself. It is me you should be wary of, Leoght Theof.”

  The memory made us smile at our reflection. We’d recovered our brush from Kit without detection the very next day. Eventually, over the next half year, enough respect got earned that ‘Leoght Theof’ turned to ‘Bogan’. The Axsian word for our surname of Rainbow wasn’t as pretty as it was in English but we’d take it.

  Our pupil focused on the mirror, a gray shape moved against the wall. The color flew into the air in a swarm as Elder Nyt revealed herself. She looked as regal as the first time we’d seen her the day of Kal’s judgment. Her long neck arched as she looked both ways before crossing to our side in front of the granite vanity. Cass leaned our palms and forearms on the cold surface then formed a steeple of our fingers to wait Nyt out. She would get to what she wanted soon enough. The other woman’s eyes were still black holes, compelling complete devotion of the unwary. It helped if we spoke only to her reflection.

  The Elder’s expression molded into the kind, caring concern of a loved one before she said in a low careful tone, “I have been informed you will visit Denu with the rest of the Imini this day. Please do be careful. I need not remind you there have been no attacks to your persons in all of the time you have been my most honored guests.” Her eyebrows raised and her chin dipped as if she expected an answer.

  Cass gave a mental bow my way and I said, “And yet, you seek to remind us of our seeming safety in your care anyway. We were perfectly safe in Denu for longer than six months, yet in the end it meant little…Ealdemodor.”

  Nyt smiled, showing her jagged teeth, and Cass said, “My, my, Ealdemodor, what big teeth you have.”

  Efl shuffled past looking sleepy until she noticed her grandmother. Suddenly wired, the tall girl bowed in tiny jerks, tripped over her left foot and stumbled off to spread the news on who had popped by.

  Nyt bent over the counter, turned her face toward ours and ground out, “Look at me, or are you afraid?”

  Cass kept our eyes trained on the mirror. “We aren’t afraid, only cautious, Ealdemodor. Only fools ignore danger for pride. We don’t feel very prideful at the moment.”

  She gave us a full frontal view of her face again and it was drawn in angry lines. Displeasure made her wrinkles more noticeable around her mouth and high on her tall forehead.

  “You try my patience with your continued resistance to any kind overture on my part. What I once saw as wit, I am beginning to see as an inability to conform, not just to your own detriment but to the danger of those closest to you.” Nyt jerked her head at the pallet-filled chamber full of tittering girls, made nervous by their unexpected guest.

  Our gut clenched. Was she threatening our friend? I practically shouted at my twin. “I knew there was a reason they’ve been sucking up to Lil so much, dammit. She’s nothing more than leverage to them and she can’t even see it, Sister.”

  Ela and Lil were walking our way. Lil’s beautiful blood-red hair was piled in twisted ropes on her head, making her long neck take on giraffe proportions. Just in case we had any doubt, Nyt slid a hand over to separate our cold fingers and weave them together with hers.

  “She is a credit to her race. They are not all simple savages, content to scrounge a living off animals and soil. It would be a shame if her potential was never met.” Nyt’s thick nails cut painfully into the thin skin inside the finger joints on our left hand.

  Cass didn’t let our body betray the small torture. I spoke in a voice that carried, to clue our tormentor in on the fact that we didn’t respond well to threats. “They have a saying on Earth—sugar gets you more than vinegar. Unpleasant words rarely get the same result as pleasant ones, Elder Nyt.”

  The pressure on our skin eased abruptly as she dropped her punishing clawed grip to turn and greet Ela and Lil with a cheerful coo of admiration for our friend’s hair. It seemed like they both swallowed the bait too, until I noticed Ela’s gaze zeroed in on our upturned hand on the vanity. I curled our fingers against the burn of the crescent impressions Nyt had left in our skin. They would bruise but there was no blood.

  Ela moved her eyebrows in a subtle dance of confusion at her mother. “I did not expect you, Modor. Is there any change to this day’s plans we should know of?”

  Nyt went straight into doting grandmother mode. “Not every decision I make is hinged on my role as an Elder, Ela. Sometimes you have to break out of your schedule and enjoy life with those that bring you joy. We should all eat together in the hall. I have it arranged.” She gave a dismissive click of her tongue at her daughter. Her next words were pitched to echo off the ceiling and carry to every nook and cranny of the cavern. “Your morning repast waits in the hall, Cilda.”

  With that command couched as an invitation, she disappeared as quickly as she’d come. Ela discreetly moved to our side and ran a gentle hand down the inside of our arm to pull our injured hand in sight. Her touch was light and quick—once inspected; our arm was carefully placed in its former position. She rubbed our shoulder with a knuckle and then set about gathering everyone for breakfast. Lil didn’t even notice our silent exchange.

  The hall was an open dining area twenty feet high and a football field in width and length. Stalactites dripped like waxy chandeliers, creating inky shadows in their roots—a perfect hiding place for imagined monsters. Grand tables molded from the cavern floor ran in vertical rows the length of the chamber. There were no chairs and all diners sat on plush pillows to eat. Its immensity was meant to impress and make guests feel small but we were already vertically challenged so the effect rolled off to be stomped under sure feet.

  Elder Nyt’s household was arranged by color rankings. Her rainbow hues were unique to her person and no other Aniy dared to wear ‘Roy G Biv’ all at once. Lavender was reserved for those with a direct line of communication to The Elder; blue was for those aspiring to advance to lavender; yellow and blue together were for that awkward stage between adult and youth; yellow by itself was reserv
ed for family with no place in the power structure but existence; green was for children. Red indicated a servant or paid worker status. The color orange was rarely seen except as an accent trimming a neckline or as jewelry and we hadn’t quite figured out its significance yet.

  The table usually reserved for Elder Nyt and her lavender-robed inner circle was rearranged. Nyt sat at the head per the usual but she had invited two more guests than advertised. On her right hand Fid Tal sat with stiff lips and a raised chin looking like a visiting queen from a foreign country. Her white tunic with its standard coppery border rested against her warm ebony skin in a frame of light. Her Highness’s single braid was coiled on her head like a viper. At her side sat a glowering, slumped Mez.

  Our heartbeat picked up.

  Cass rolled our eyes. “You saw him yesterday, Silver.”

  On reflex I said, “Bite me.”

  Our group continued in its orderly duckling line all the way to Nyt’s table where Ela assigned each girl a seat. We ended up near the head directly beside Ela and across from Mez. I risked a glance before we knelt on our cushion and his brow was wrinkled in that bothered Shar Pei way he had when he was trying to put a finger on something.

  Cass stuck out our tongue then pulled a face. He frowned in censure; gloom and doom incarnate. What was his problem?

  Ela clucked at us. “Manners, Bogan.”

  Fid Tal inclined her head at Elder Nyt. “I doubt you will find it easy to train that one.”

  Nyt gave a prim humorless stretch of her closed lips. “All things are possible with patience and the Will of Annis, Tal. You were not so easily corralled at a certain age either, if my memory serves.”

  Red clad servants placed platters of food all down the center of the twelve foot table. Our stomach was prepped for a loud growl but we knew no one was permitted to eat before a color of higher rank had filled their plate and took their first bite. It was a pain in the ass.